Block for pavements and coverings



Juhe 30, 1931. L. PESSIONE 1,812,711

BLOCK FOR PAVEMENTS AND COVERINGS Filed Aug. 20, 1928 2 SheetsSheet l June 30, 1931.

L. PESSIONE BLOCK FOR PAVEMENTS AND COVERINGS Filed Aug. 20, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Lil Patented June 30, 1931 PATENT OFFICE LUIGI PESSIONE, OF TURIN, ITALY BLOCK FOR PAVEMENTS AND COVERINGS Application filed. August 20, 1928, Serial No. 300,824, and in Italy August 27, 1927.

My invention relates to a method of making street and road pavements and coverings for dams, embankments and the like, by means of fashioned blocks, and has for its primary object to provide a block adapted for the purposes referred to, which may be firmly interengaged with adjoining blocks but which may be easily removed by means of a slight horizontal displacement thereof. A second object of my invention is to provide a half-block of the kind specified which can easily be interengaged on three sides with adjoining blocks for the purpose of forming an edge or border of the pavement or the like.

-' A third object of my invention is to provide a fourth part of block of the kind specified which can easily be interengaged on two sides with adjoining blocks for the purpose of forming a corner of the pavement or the like. A substantial object of my inven tion is to provide blocks which will very effectively bear upon each other through'projections and depressions on their end faces so as to provide an exact level at the upper and lower beds of the adjoining blocks when in operation.

According to this invention, the pavement or the like consists of fashioned blocks, each of which is formed with two ends having a projecting and a retracted portion which will act as upturned and downturned bearing surfaces or elements.

In the annexed drawings, forming part of this specification are illustrated some embodiments of the invention.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan of a portion of pavement made by means of blocks according to one embodiment. Figs. 2 and 3 are top and bottom plan views of the block shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is a perspective view thereof. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of a border block, and Fig. 6 is a similar view of a corner block.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another modiiication of my block and Fig. 8 is a plan view of a portion of pavement made with blocks like that shown in Fig. 7.

As shown in Figs. 2 to 4, a block 1 comprises a rectangular lower portion 2 and a cross shaped upper portion 3, said portions being connected to each other through intermediate projections and depressions having more or less inclined downturned and up turned faces 4 and 5 respectively.

In assembled relation, the faces 5 of each r block will bear against the faces 1 of adjoining blocks, so that each of these bears on the adjacent blocks and the load carried by .a block is partly distributed on the adjoining blocks, while at the same time both the upper and lower beds of the latter are at an exact common level.

It will be understood that lower portion and upper portion, downturned and upturned, are conventional wordings, which apply to the blocks in the particular position shown, and that the same results are obtained by inverting the blocks when laying them. If the blocks are inverted with their rectangular portion 2 on top, the lower por- 76 tion will become the upper portion, and downturned face will become upturned.

The two superposed portions 2 and 3 of a block may have equal or different thicknesses, according to the requirements. The projections 6 of the cross-shaped portion thereof may extend through a greater or lesser length of a side, as desired.

. In the alternative modification shown in Figs. 7 and 8, the upper portion 9 of a block is hexagonal in shape, while the lower portion 10 is square, said portions being so superposed and connected to each other as to provide bearing surfaces 11 and 12, upturned and downturned respectively. The interen- 1 gagement of the adjacent blocks is obtained as shown in Fig. 8, with the same results secured by the first embodiment.

The side projections and depressions may be formed with chamfered or rounded angles, 90 and the connecting surfaces between the superposed portions 2 and 3 (Fig. 4) as well as the surfaces 11 and 12 of Fig. 7, may be curved if desired.

Irrespective of the form given to the said projections and depressions, the same geometrical scheme is employed for deriving blocks according to the invention which fit snugly together with an interlocking effect and at the same time may be readily removed to repair the pavement. A hexahedral block is used, and from each of the four corners on the upper face, a portion is removed and turned through 180 around a vertical axis located on the face constituting the end of the block. This axis will be parallel to the sides of block and located at a distance from the side equal to one-fourth of the width of the end, for example. The width of each cutout portion is equal to, or less than, onefourth of the width of the end of the block; the thickness, less than one-half the width of a side of said block; and the depth, measuring from said upper face, less than the depth of the block.

In order to form the borders of a defined area of a pavement, or an edge or border of a covering, or the like, halves of a block are used, such as shown at Fig. 5, whereby such half-block may be obtained by cutting in two halves a block of Fig. t, either by a plane passing through the middle of projections 6, 6 or by a plane at right angles thereto. Fourth parts 8 of a block are similarly provided, Fig. 6, to form the corners of said pavements or covering.

In either instance the several blocks when in operation will not only bear upon each other, but will also be fixed or interengaged with each other, so that they will not be capable of raising or lowering in a reciprocal relation. This feature is advantageous not only as far as pavements are concerned but also in connection with any dam and like coverings, where the outer layer is required to provide a very plain, compact and tight wall throughout.

Furthermore a concentrated load on a block will be caused to be distributed on the ad joining blocks, thus reducing the ratio of pressure work on the ground bed on which the pavement is laid.

Any desired portion of pavement or the like may however easily be dismantled and repaired, by so removing some border blocks as to be enabled to impart a little side displacement to the blocks adjoining the objected ones, which will then be disengaged, removed and replaced.

The blocks may of course be made of any material, and be reinforced, plastered or coloured if desired.

I claim:

1. A substantially hexahedral pavement block having different upper and lower bed faces, two opposite plane side faces, and two end faces each formed so as to interlock with two adjacent equal blocks, characterized in that the interlocking form of each of the two end faces, as referred to the corresponding face of the fundamental hexahedron, consists of a central projection and a pair of corner depressions, starting from the upper bed face and reaching without undercuts at a distance from the lower bed face, the central projection resulting from the coupling according to a middle symmetry plane of two portions equal to the removed-corner portions and rotated through 180 around a pair of axes lying on the face referred to of the hexahedron, at one-fourth of the width thereof.

2. A pavement composed of substantially hexahedral blocks of identical dimensions, each block contacting with six others, and having two sides lying in parallel planes and the two ends having an interlocking form, each of said two ends having interlocking engagement with two other blocks, each of said parallel sides merely abutting on a single adjacent block, said interlocking surfaces being such that the interlocking engagement may be broken by a horizontal dis placement of a block at right angles to its plane of interlocking engagement.

3. A pavement according to claim 2, in which the interlocking engagement prevents relative movement between adjacent interlocked blocks in any direction in the plane of interlocking engagement.

4. A substantially hexahedral pavement block, having upper and lower faces of different contour, two sides lying in parallel planes, and two ends having an interlocking form, each end adapted to be interlocked with two adjacent blocks of the same dimensions as said first-mentioned block, and consisting of a central projection and a pair of corner depressions obtained by removing two corner portions and extending without undercuts from one of said faces to a point between the faces, said central projection being the geometrical result of the two removed corner portions rotated through 180 around a pair of axes lying in the end of the fundamental hexahedron at a distance from the side of one-fourth the width of said end.

In testimony whereof. I have signed my name.

" LUIGI PESSIONE.

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